An AI-generated video of famous personalities including Elon Musk, Mukesh Ambani setting up shops at the ongoing Maha Kumbh celebration in India is viral on social media.
In the video, famous company heads like Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and performer and rapper Badshah can be seen opening up and running their own daily essentials store with the caption claiming this is happening at the Maha Kumbh mela in Uttar Pradesh.
The Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 began on January 13 and has drawn massive crowds, with nearly 45 crore people arriving in the first month alone. Indian businessmen Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani have paid a visit to the Kumbh Mela as have many prominent political leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
BOOM has previously debunked AI-generated images being shared as Kumbh Mela, including one showing Shah Rukh Khan with American wrestlers and another picture of an arrested Hindu sadhu viral with a false communal claim.
The video was posted by the Instagram handle enthugo28 with the same logo visible at the top of the viral clip. The post is captioned, “Famous Personalities started their own shops in Kumbh Mela!” and includes hashtags indicating it was AI-generated, such as #kumbhmela, #reels, #ai, and #trending.
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While the facial features of those featured in the video appear realistic many anomalies are visible in the hands with some having only five fingers or oddly shaped thumbs. The movements of the hands also appears unnatural.
The Instagram page also mentions in its bio that it creates AI-generated content.
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We also found other AI-generated videos claiming popular football stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo took a holy dip at the Kumbh Mela. The video also falsely claims to show former United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hollywood actors Zendaya and Tom Holland also made an appearance at the Kumbh.
At the top left corner of the video, the word “Artificial” can be seen in faint lettering with "Kumbh Mela" superimposed prominently on it.
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